Dietary intake of PCDDs/PCDFs and coplanar PCBs among the Japanese population estimated by duplicate portion analysis: A low proportion of adults exceed the tolerable daily intake

Dietary intake of dioxins was estimated by duplicate portion analysis of consecutive 3-day food samples among 86 men and 288 women (aged 17–72 years), who were living in 75 different areas of 25 prefectures in Japan. The mean (median) intake of PCDDs+PCDFs, coplanar PCBs (co-PCBs), and total dioxins, expressed on the basis of toxicity equivalents (TEQ), was 0.46 (0.34), 0.59 (0.39), and 1.06 (0.79) pg/kg body weight/day, respectively. Dietary intake was highest in fishing areas, followed by farming and urban areas. In multiple regression analysis, TEQs of PCDDs+PCDFs, co-PCBs, and total dioxins were positively associated with age and intake amount of fish and shellfish, and milk and dairy products, and negatively associated with survey year. There were significant positive correlations between dietary intake and blood levels for TEQs of PCDDs+PCDFs, co-PCBs, and total dioxins (Pearson r=0.35–0.36). The proportion of those whose dietary intake exceeded the tolerable daily intake (TDI), set by the World Health Organization (4 pg TEQ/kg/day) and European Union (2 pg TEQ/kg/day), was estimated at 2.1% and 10.4%, respectively. However, these proportions were considered to be overestimated because of the effect of day-to-day within-person variation. Therefore, the ratio of within- and between-person variance was estimated by applying random effects one-way analysis of variance to repeated measurements for another group of 35 persons. When the effect of within-person variation of dietary intake was accounted for, the proportion of subjects whose long-term intake exceeded the TDI of WHO and EU decreased to 0.06% and 2.9%, respectively.